Small river fans – are You there? If looking for a tour that would require a bit of adventurous struggle instead of complete “nothingdoing” – we have one here: “Mazā Jugla” is her name (mazā = small). A rather narrow and restless river with plenty of curves and turns finishing in Juglas lake in the very outskirts of Riga. The 10th longest river in Latvia with navigable part being nearly 100km.

Mazā Jugla is a river where expected amount of adventure and required effort depend directly on how much water there is. During long dry periods, oftenly in july, the river can be very shallow which means that one might find him/herself carrying the kayak almost as often as the kayak carries him/her …which is totally fine if You are mentally prepared for such distribution of responsibilities during Your holiday 🙂

Usually we recommend to enjoy this tour during months of higher levels of water: april, may, perhaps june, september and october, but even then one needs to be ready to some minor kayak pulling and wading.

There are no cities nor towns directly by the river, but small village here and there as well as individual households are quiet common part of the scenery. Small bridges also remind of human presence but also serve as important landmarks of usual access points to the river. In few words: the civilization is near, but not overly intrusive and usually “somewhere behind the bushes”.

Minor rapids, small island-ish formations, stones, bushes, a fallen tree here and there – this is the typical “contents” of this river tour. Ofcourse, there is a lot more to see, do and to tell about, but let us maybe leave it for Yourselves to reveal will we? 🙂 Please, do not hesitate to ask for more details and information by contacting us though – we will be more then happy to assist.

In the end let’s have a small insight: 2 km after Ceplisi village (on the right bank) the flow is stopped by a dam of Dobelnieki HPP (hydroelectro power plant). It is crossroads of the tour here and a moment of decision: one can either cross the dam and go on paddling the curves of the river or hop out on the left side, have a 100m walk (where for the sake of change boats are the ones being carried not the other way around :)) and continue paddling on the canal which once again will meet the river near Dobelnieki bridge after ~1 km (pulling the boats again out and performing another short walk with boats on hands).

Distance: ~95 km

Time: ~3 days (can take a bit more or less – it mostly depends on water level and Your preferred paddling tempo, time spent on stopping points etc.)

Starting from: bridge by Diedzins or Suntazi bridge

Finishing in: Jugla lake

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON!